


You Aren't Alone

by Wiitchi



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Bus driver's name is Bus driver, F/F, Implied Anxiety, Like it's never really gone into detail on how it crashed, Marina gives pearl some needed TLC, Mild Language, Nightmares, Pearl gets to cuss, Pearl gets to say fuck, Splatober, This is for the splatoon amino, car crash, dont hurt me, implied depression, it just is, it's super brief tho, mild violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2019-01-09 16:48:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12280533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wiitchi/pseuds/Wiitchi
Summary: "Please, Marina, please pick up," Pearl whispered, holding the phone close to her ear.Beep... "Hello?"Pearl gripped her phone tighter. "Marina! Marina, it's me Pea-""Sorry, I can't answer the phone right now! I'm probably making some sick beats with my best friend, Pearl!" "Haha, that's me!" "So leave a message and I'll call you back when I can!" Beep."No, no no no please," She whispered looking at her phone. Voice message time: 0:34. "Marina..." Pearl whispered, beginning to cry. Pearl knew she shouldn't be crying right now, but she couldn't help it. She was lost and stuck in the middle of a forest with no contact to the outside world and it was extremely scary. Pearl sat there on her legs, crying and gripping her phone as the voice message continued to roll on, recording her ugly crying.She was so lost.





	You Aren't Alone

**Author's Note:**

> There IS a car crash involved in this story so if you are not comfortable with it please skip from "Fortunately, she was wrong..." to the next time divider (===). The crash is not in extreme detail is more just implied but if you are still not comfortable then go ahead and skip to the mentioned area above or anywhere slightly past it (I recommend reading some of it though because some things Pearl does in this section will be mentioned and possibly important later on in the story.)

Pearl stood, panting softly from the performance they had just performed and all the dancing. She glanced towards Marina who was in the same position as her; softly panting with her back towards the audience, her hands splayed out at her sides. Her partner looked over at Pearl and nodded and at the same time, they both turned and began to speak into their headsets.

"Don't get cooked...," they both spoke, matching half of their pose with the speed in which they were speaking. They both watched as their fans screamed in excitement and they finished the phrase with their fans, "Stay off the hook!" Their fans screamed in delight, waving their glow sticks and merch into the air.

The stage went dark and that was the cue for Marina and Pearl to slip off stage and so they did. As they were walking behind the stage and the lights were turning on for the fans to begin to leave, Pearl laughed and swung her arms into the air, "Marina! Did you see the way they acted when I started rapping like that?" She laughed, her adrenaline still running through her. Marina nodded and laughed, "Yes I did Pearlie, it was pretty obvious by the fact that they were screaming _'Go, Pearl, Go!'_ while you did," her friend commented. Pearl swung her arms back down and looked towards Marina, doing her little pout she was recognized for, "Thanks for ruining my fun!" Pearl stuck out her tongue and pulled down her left eyelid before breaking her composure and laughing. Marina giggled at the sight of her friend and sighed, stretching her arms above her head. "C'mon, Pearlie, we should be getting to the backstage to help with cleaning up," She said, leading the way already. Pearl caught on and nodded and followed along behind.

===

After they had finished, they both got into their tour bus, albeit a bit small, and headed towards their Condo, unfortunately on the other side of the town. "Ugh," Pearl started to complain, rummaging through her backpack that she had brought with her to the concert, "I forgot to bring my SquiDS," she muttered, shuffling through it one last time. "Don't you have your phone to distract you?" Marina asked, looking over towards her friend. "Yeah, I do; never leave without it," she replied, taking out her phone briefly and waving it around in the general direction of Marina before placing it back down on the seat, "I was just hoping to have it so I could check on my town. Today was one of my villager's birthdays and I don't want to time skip for the nth time," she sighed and leaned back into her chair, feeling frustrated.

Not having her squiDS, she checked her phone for the time and any social media updates. 9:24 pm, and nothing on Squidder, Inkagram, or Squidchat. She groaned again, sliding down in her seat. She glanced towards Marina who had gotten up to open the cabinet on her side, grabbing a bag of chips before sitting down in her original spot; right across from Pearl on the other set of seats. "How long is our ride back home again?" Pearl asked, turning her back towards the end of the seat and leaned against it, staring out the window. "Approximately 5 and 1/2 hours," Marina replied, settling down to do _something_ while eating some chips.

"Thanks, Marmar," Pearl replied before watching the landscape go by, now becoming much more barren and rural then it had been in the Urban city. 5 hours on a bus. Gross. They had originally taken an airplane here but there was a snowstorm forming, a rather big one too, so they decided to just completely avoid airplanes and take the tour bus back. Thankfully, the bus had a built-in kitchen, bedrooms, and bathroom so everyone could at least live in it if necessary, but it wouldn't be fun. 

She picked up her phone once more and checked the time again. 9:26 pm. She groaned; only 2 minutes had passed yet it felt like 10. This was going to be a long ride.

Fortunately, she was wrong about the ride. But in a bad way. The driver had done  _something_ for the bus to spin out of control and crash. Pearl didn't realize it until too late and hit her head against the thick-window glass, knocking her out.

===

"Hmmm," Pearl hummed, slowly coming back to reality. It took her around 5 minutes to wake up, but once she did, she knew something was wrong. 

First of all, the bus was extremely slanted. The cabinets on the opposite side of Pearl were just barely staying shut and the blankets, pillows, and other items had just completely fallen off and just rested on the sides of the seats or wall. Second of all, the bus was completely dark. The electricity had been cut off so the bus probably didn't work anymore either. Third; no one was on the bus with her. She expected Marina or the driver to be on but neither were. It was just her. And even if they  _did_ leave the bus, they would've most likely picked Pearl up and taken her out with them so she wouldn't be left behind.

So something was  _definitely_ wrong.

Pearl looked around for her phone and found it around 3 feet away from her, shoved between the cushions of the seats. She grabbed it and checked the time while turning on the phone's flashlight. It was 11:31 pm. She was knocked out for a little over 2 hours. The bad news was that her phone was on 30% charge battery so she needed to find the actual flashlight they had here on the bus. Luckily, she knew where it was.

Standing up, Pearl surveyed the surrounding area. It was trashed. Before, she didn't notice how messy it was with the lights off, but now with her phone's light, it was a complete  _mess_. Branches were sticking through the broken glass on the opposite side of the bus, scattering leaves, glass, and pieces of wood all over the bus. Cushions, blankets, pillows, and other items were just  _everywhere._ She looked behind her and the saw the bus was leaning directly against a cliff, rocks, and stones making small scratches and spiderwebs against the glass. In general, the bus was a complete  _wreck._

She looked around, searching for her backpack. It was more towards the back of the bus, near the bathroom door. Pearl slowly walked towards the bedrooms section, looking around with her flashlight. "What in inkopolis happened here?" She asked herself quietly, glancing around at the thrown about blankets and now suitcases. She went over to her suitcase and opened it, rummaging through it. If she was going outside, she would need to change out of this _ridiculously_   poofy dress and into something that she could spend a lot of time in, some better shoes for walking and that had her shoe supports in them, her portable phone charger so she could at least charge her phone a little bit while traveling, food, water, extra batteries, and anything else she would need.

She grabbed her phone's portable charger along with a block so she could plug it into an outlet if needed, her new clothes, and her other pair of shoes. All she needed now was the other things, which would be in the crash kit somewhere inside. She continued to slowly make her way towards her backup, avoiding all the branches and stones that have fallen into the bus. 

Finally, she reached her backpack which was, thankfully, still closed so it still had all of her belongings in it. She picked it up and slowly opened the bathroom's door, moving her temporary flashlight to check that there was nothing dangerous inside. Nothing. Good. She quickly went inside and locked the door behind her before letting out the tension that had built upon her shoulders. Going through the bus in the middle of the night, in the middle of  _nowhere_ with none of your friends around was extremely nerve-wracking. She quickly changed out of her poofy dress into her black jeans, old Dr.Pepper t-shirt, and red high-top converse with her proper shoe supports in them. Afterwards, she quickly rummaged through her backpack, taking out any unnecessary items that would just take up room. She then packed the items she had on her and in the bathroom that could be useful on her journey. She then slung her backpack over her shoulder and exited the bathroom. All she needed to find now was the map, some food and water, a first aid kit, and the flashlight

Thankfully, she knew where almost everything was. She took some canned and non-canned foods out from the cabinets and shoved them into her backpack along with two bottles of water that were relatively big too. She picked back up her backpack and moved to the front of the bus. Inside the driver's pit were the map and first aid kit and, hopefully, the flashlight she needed. The pit was an equal mess, if not messier than the bus was. Pencils, cups, papers, and other things were scattered about. "Wow," Pearl remarked, shifting through the driver's door pocket, getting the map and putting it up, "our driver is extremely lazy about throwing things away. " She mentally shrugged. Who could blame him though? She shortly found the first aid kit and, thankfully, the flashlight. She put the first aid kit in her backpack and put her phone on the charger she brought and turned on the actual flashlight. 

Pearl went to go exit the bus but, unfortunately, and honestly not unexpected, the door was blocked by the cliff. "Crap," she huffed going back inside and headed straight for the bathroom once more, a little bit quicker this time since she did  _not_ want to be in this bus any longer. The windows on the bus didn't open except for the bathroom window which was right behind the toilet. After she got into the bathroom once more and climbed on the toilet seat, she started to shove the window open. "Come on you stupid window," she rammed against it once more, "open!" After about 3 minutes of ramming, she decided to take a break to only realize; the window was locked. "Wow," she remarked, unlocking the window and opening it with ease, "thanks. "

Pearl shoved her backpack through the small bathroom window, barely making it through, before hauling herself up and out. She huffed after falling down onto the dirt and stood up, brushing herself and her backpack off before slinging it all the way on. She looked around as to where the bus had fallen. It was trapped in a small ditch apparently in a forest. Small, ripped off branches stuck through the side of the bus, both through the windows and the actual metal of the bus. "Creepy," she whispered and slowly began climbing out of the ditch.

After finally getting out, it appeared that there was a house, possibly around a half a mile away. "Maybe they're there?" Pearl took out the flashlight once again and turned it on, looking around the forest. It looks like from what she can remember, they were around 2 hours away from their home. She slowly began her way towards the house, looking around the forest, The trees were extremely tall, most likely pinewood. She continued through the forest, walking and walking but it never looked like she got any closer to the house.

So, she started to pick up her pace. 

It went from slow, timid walking to a nice fast walk, to full out sprinting.

"Come ON!" Pearl huffed, trying desperately to get to the house on the other side. But after too long, she slowed down entirely, putting all her weight onto her hands, resting on her knees, hunched over. She looked up towards the house, to see if she had made any progress. Nothing. But this time, she saw something else. She saw the door open, and two figures walk out.

They looked exactly like Marina and the bus driver."HEY!" Pearl shouted, quickly jumping up and down and waving her arms as if she was waving SOS. Which she sorta was. "MARINA! BUS DRIVER! IT'S ME! PEARL!!" She screamed, continuing to jump up and down. They never noticed her. She stood, watching them ignore her and go deeper into the forest. She stood, panting, watching the only two people out here with what she trusted her life with, walk away, leaving her stranded on the other side of the road. Left behind like some sort of  _trash_ that the garbage truck forgot to pick up and had been left out to sit for days upon days. 

Pearl took a shaking breath. And another. And another. She sighed, her voice quivering. "Not now," she whispered to herself, "not now." 

She stood silently, staring out towards the house, trying,  _trying_ so hard to think of a way to contact her friend. "Wait," she immediately put down her backpack and started going through it, desperately trying to find her, "my phone. I can call her." She grabbed it out of it's charging port. 67%. "Please," she whispered, unlocking her phone and opening the phone app, scrolling through her contacts til she got to Marina's name, "please, please,  _please_ pick up," she whispered desperately. She started calling. 

_Beep... Beep... Beep... Beep..._

"Please, Marina,  _please pick up,_ " Pearl whispered, holding the phone close to her ear.

_Beep..._   _"Hello?_ "

Pearl gripped her phone tighter. "Marina! Marina, it's me Pea-"

_"Sorry, I can't answer the phone right now! I'm probably making some sick beats with my best friend, Pearl!" "Haha, that's me!" "So leave a message and I'll call you back when I can!"_ _Beep._

"No, no no no please," She whispered looking at her phone.  _Voice message time: 0:34_. "Marina..." Pearl whispered, beginning to cry. Pearl knew she shouldn't be crying right now, but she couldn't help it. She was  _lost_ and  _stuck_ in the middle of a  _forest_ with no contact to the outside world and it was extremely scary. Pearl sat there on her legs, crying and gripping her phone as the voice message continued to roll on, recording her ugly crying. 

She was so lost.

===

After around 30 minutes worth of crying, Pearl was just softly sobbing, tears no longer leaving her already red flushed face. She had run out of them. "Come on, Pearl," she whispered to herself, slowing putting her phone back on the charger and ending the 34-minute long voice message of her crying, "you can find another way. Everyone does."

She stood up slowly, swinging on her backpack before looking around, wiping the rest of her tears off her face and chin. The last thing she really knew how to do was just find a road and hope for the best. Pearl slowly headed back to the bus, which was around 20 feet away from her. After walking the distance she slowly followed the tire tracks to the road, around 2 miles west of where the bus had been.

She then followed the road, just walking and walking. It was lonely. She looked up towards the sky, watching the moon and stars twinkle in the dark blue night sky. It was probably around midnight at this point but she didn't bother to check the time. "I'm really alone this time, aren't I?" she muttered, kicking a stone under her foot as she looked back down, staring down at the road.

She always felt alone in some sort of way whenever she was doing something. Like when she's talking to other musical artists, like the Squid Sisters or Wet Floor, she was the only one there who had different views, ideas, for her next single song. And she felt like they all  _hated_ it. Even Marina, her best friend, and partner in singing.

She felt alone when she rapped in her song and even in her and Marina's "Off the Hook" songs. She felt alone when she heard the fans talk about Marina and how much they loved her and enjoyed her music. How  _cute_ she was. She felt alone when she heard their fans talk behind her back about how  _ugly_ she is and how  _bratty_ and  _childish_ she acts and how Marina was clearly the better one of the duo. 

She felt alone with battling her battles. Like she had no help, no crutch to fall on when the monster critically wounded her and she had no health potions, like an RPG. Like she had no mage or wizard to fall on that would help boost her attack and heal her so she could defeat the evil and save the princess and her kingdom. Like she was a police officer and had no other officer with her on duty when they would be chasing down the ultimate bad guy and would arrest him, saving everyone's lives. 

It was like she had no one there to support her.

"Stop, Pearl, stop," she said to herself, stopping in her tracks and wrapping her arms tightly around herself, trying to calm down, "it's okay," she continued to whisper. She didn't want to cry again. Not here, not now.

After she calmed down and started to walk again, she noticed something. The road ended. "What?" She asked, walking up to the road's end. It just physically  _ended_. There was nothing there. The road just  _ended._ The road had stopped, the cement falling off as if it had ended unexpectedly and not too far from it was a cliff. "What..." she whispered slowly and carefully making her way off the now broken and cracked road and onto the soft and green grass of the forest. On the end of the cliff's edge was just a dark abyss below. You'd expect water or something of the sort but no, it just physically, literally, and just purely  _black._ There was nothing there.

"What in the world," Pearl muttered slowly backing up. After she had gotten onto the road again, she turned around to start running away. She felt sick being near. She felt like she knew something bad was going to happen. But when she turned around, there was something blocking her way.

It was herself.

Pearl stared at...  _herself._ It was her. It had the same body shape as her, tiny and slim, the haircut as her, the same  _height_ as her. "W-Who are you?" She asked, taking a step back.

The figure just stood and stared. The entire figure was pitch black like it was made out of ink, something darker than black itself. It just stood, watching Pearl as she put her hands out to balance herself if she needed to run but there really wasn't anywhere to run to. She was trapped but she didn't want to acknowledge it.

"I'm you," it responded. It even had the same exact  _voice_ as her but at this point, it wasn't surprising. The voice was much more... gargled and muffled though. Like it was drowning in something. 

"No you aren't, I'm me," Pearl replied, slowly taking another step back. She was getting freaked out. She had nowhere to go if that thing decided to attack her and... she honestly had nothing to lose either if it did.

That scared her the most though.

"No, I'm you, but you are also yourself. I'm a voice that lives inside your head, silly! I've been living inside your head for a couple of years now and I've made myself quite cozy in your little brain! Tell me, Pearl, why have you refused my help? I keep trying to tell you that releasing your built up pain on others will  _help_ you! They  _need_ to know how you've been feeling these past few years and that it's their fa-"

"Stop," Pearl demanded. She already knew where this was going to go. She had already thought about this enough. She had already _worried_ about this enough. She didn't want to deal with this anymore. She thought she was free, fine and okay from this entire  _mess_. "You, you can't control me anymore you stupid _monster,_ " Pearl argued back, pointing a shaking finger at it. Why was she shaking? 

"I'm not a  _monster_ ," it gargled at Pearl, slowing moving closing towards her, causing her to take another step back, closer towards the cliff, "I'm more like your... your  _guardian angel in disguise!_ " It giggled. God, that was such an awful giggle.

"Like hell you are! " Pearl hissed, getting extremely frustrated incredibly fast. She was lost, afraid, and alone on the edge of a cliff where she had nowhere to go and was talking to the personification of her-"Like  _fucking HELL_ you're not a monster! You  _know_ that every single bit of you is one!" 

" _Pearl, you should stop lying to yourself,"_ it whispered but it sounded so loud to her,  _"you now that isn't very n i c e. "_   It quickly moved towards her, almost flinging its void of a body towards Pearl.

Pearl screamed in fright and ran towards the cliff's edge, staring down into the abyss below. She would either have to jump or be supposedly eaten alive by this  _monster._

She chooses the former and jumped into the abyss.

But, she caught onto a ledge and held on with all her might. The ledge was breaking off of the cliff though due to too much weight. "Fuck, " she whispered, quickly and a bit recklessly swung her backpack off into the abyss where she watched it go and disappear forever.

_Just like she would._

 Somehow, she remained hanging onto the ledge and stayed on.

" _So you choose the weakling's way out. Bye bye then,"_ it whispered into the abyss. 

After a moment of silence, she could hear footsteps come running up.

" _PEARL!"_   Marina, " _We were so worried about you! We went to the house to go get some help and when we came back you weren't there! "_

_"Sorry, I was just trying to find you guys! I just felt so alone and...,"_ It sighed in relief and it sounded like it was going to cry from it.

_"I'm so glad you're safe! Pearl, remember this; you aren't alone."_

But she was. She was so  _alone_.

Before she could even let go, the abyss grabbed onto her waist, her legs, her arms, and any part of her body they could reach and held on tightly, stopping the blood flow throughout her entire body. She started choking, gasping for breaths before she was pulled into the abyss. But before she disappeared forever into the sickeningly dark void, she briefly saw the monster turn, and look at through the void. 

It whispered directly into her ear;

"You aren't alone."

===

Pearl woke up with a gasp, holding onto her chest tightly.

"Pearl, Pearl calm down!" She looked over briefly to see Marina there, by her side, holding her arms with a concerned, sharp frown on her soft face. Pearl rushed in for a hug, grabbing desperately onto Marina.

"M-Marina, don't leave me alone ever again, please," she whispered into her friend's shoulder, burying her face into her friend's neck.

"Pearl, _Pearl_ , look at me Pearl," Marina whispered, pulling up her friends face, holding onto her cheeks.

_"You aren't alone,"_ her friend whispered.

She fell back into the void, crying.

She was never alone.

**Author's Note:**

> This was mildly inspired by Little Nightmares and The Walking Dead Game Series. Specifically, Pearl's nightmares.  
> Their tour bus is inspired by Selena Quintanilla's Big Bertha. Specifically the layout.  
> The game pearl was referring to on her 'squiDS' (a DS/3DS) was ACNL.  
> Squidder is the Splatoon version of Twitter, Inkagram is the Instagram, and SquidChat is the Snapchat.  
> Also the part about her shoe supports? That's just me projecting onto her lol  
> Pearl's nightmare-self was inspired briefly by Bendy and the Ink machine.  
> This is sorta rushed because I didn't have enough time to really think about how I wanted the plot to play out so I apologize for that.


End file.
